The Hell's Angel who was shot dead on the M40 last year was killed by members of a rival biker gang in a "military-style operation", a court was told yesterday.

Gerry Tobin, a "fully patched" Hell's Angel from Mottingham in south-east London, died instantly after being shot from a moving car as he returned from the Bulldog Bash biker festival in Long Marston, Warwickshire, on August 12.

Timothy Raggatt QC, prosecuting, said the murder had been carried out with "great skill and precision".

Opening the case against the six men accused of murdering Tobin, Raggatt told Birmingham crown court that the killing of the 35-year-old mechanic had been "a thoroughly cold-blooded business", calculated to the last detail. But he also told the jury that despite their intricate preparations, the six men - all allegedly members of the Outlaws biker gang - had chosen their victim for no other reason than his membership of the Hell's Angels.

"This was a man who was targeted not because of who he was, but because of what he was. In one sense, Gerry Tobin was a random victim," said Raggatt. He added: "He was a complete stranger to each and every one of the men in the dock. There is not a scrap of evidence that any of them had ever met him. That said, of course, he was undoubtedly targeted, selected and, some would say, executed."

Simon Turner, 41, from Nuneaton, and Malcolm Bull, 53, from Milton Keynes, are on trial alongside four men from Coventry - Karl Garside, 45, his brother Dane Garside, 42, Dean Taylor, 47, and 46-year-old Ian Cameron. The exact addresses of the defendants, who all deny murder and possessing firearms, cannot be reported for legal reasons.

Turner and Dane Garside also deny a further firearms charge. A seventh defendant, Sean Creighton, 44, from Coventry, pleaded guilty to murder and firearms charges last week and will be sentenced at the conclusion of the six-week trial.

The prosecution alleges that the six defendants and Creighton constituted the entire membership of the South Warwickshire chapter of the Outlaws, which had a "clubhouse" in Coventry. Bull was, by his own admission, the treasurer of the chapter, collecting subscriptions from other members of the "very, very close-knit" group, said Raggatt.

He added that the Outlaws may have regarded the area around Long Marston as "part of their patch".

Tobin was travelling in convoy along the motorway with two other motorcyclists when two rounds were fired at him near Warwick services. The bullet that killed him probably came from a revolver, while a second handgun was used to aim a shot at his rear wheel, Raggatt said.

The fatal shot, he added, would have been very difficult to pull off.

"It was a thoroughly carefully aimed shot delivered by someone in a vehicle. It was a moving vehicle travelling at something like 85-90mph, approaching carefully from behind," he said.

The car from which the fatal shot was fired was found burnt out later the same day, destroying any potential evidence.

Members of the jury were asked before the case started whether any of them had ever been a member of, or knew members of, any organised bikers' group.

Prospective jurors were also asked whether they had ever attended the Bulldog Bash bikers' festival or a similar event organised by the Outlaws.